


illusion never changed into something real

by bemynewobsession



Category: Harlots (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Internalized Homophobia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-17 16:49:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16099760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bemynewobsession/pseuds/bemynewobsession
Summary: Charlotte Wells works in her mother's restaurant that is a front for a brothel and Isabella Fitzwilliam is fighting for her right to have a position of power in her family's company.





	1. The Perfect Sky is Torn

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what the fuck this is or what I am going to do with it but the idea popped into my head and there are just too few true AUs in the LadyHarlot/Fitzwells tag so here you go. Lemme know in the comments what you think about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what the fuck this is or what I am going to do with it but the idea popped into my head and there are just too few true AUs in the LadyHarlot/Fitzwells tag so here you go. Lemme know in the comments what you think about it.

“Damn! Get a load of this bird. Definitely on the wrong side of town, ey Charlotte?” Charlotte looked up from her notepad to catch a glimpse of the ‘bird’ Emily Lacey was talking about. She caught a look at the woman as Lucy, her sister and the restaurant’s hostess for the morning, sat her down in Charlotte’s section.

Charlotte hmmed in agreement as she stepped around the till to get a better look. The woman was browsing over the menu with perfectly manicured hands. Charlotte watched as one of those hands pushed back an errant hair back into the woman’s immaculate bun.

“Charlie, she’s in your section! Go figure out why a socialite like ‘er is in a joint like this!” Charlotte dragged her eyes away from the regal figure the table and turned to glare at Sukey.

“And how the fuck am I supposed to do that?” Charlotte said brusquely. “Why a customer comes to us is not exactly the sor’ of small talk Ma encourages us to chat about with the ‘guests’.”  

Emily just waggled her eyebrows and said, “Use what God gave you Charlotte! We all know you’ve got a way with the ladies.” Charlotte just rolled her eyes and began walking over to take the woman’s order.

“Good mornin’. My name’s Charlotte and I’ll be servin’ you today. Can I get you somethin’ to drink?” Charlotte took the opportunity of being closer to the woman to take in what she was wearing. A perfectly tailored blazer and skirt that stood out starkly as being almost too _clean_ to be in her mother’s joint.

Perhaps the woman was just wondering the neighborhood and was unaware of the ‘specialities’ the Well’s Hole in the Wall had to offer.

“Just plain Earl Grey tea will suffice. Thank you.” Charlotte glanced up to the woman’s face as she spoke and bit back a gasp. The woman in front of her was not only most certainly some sort of socialite, she was also a very _beautiful_ sort of socialite.

She was probably just younger than Charlotte’s own mother, but time had served the woman perfectly. She had soft and pure blue eyes as well as full red lips that moved just slightly as she spoke.

Charlotte stood in shock for a moment, just staring at the woman, until she realized what she was doing. The woman had realized what she was doing as well as, flushing across her face and neck and delivering a meek, “Do I have something on my face?”

Charlotte felt herself blush and cursed herself slightly for ogling the woman. “Eh, no it’s just that you don’t look the like the usual sor’ of people we get comin’ in here. You look more the type to go to Madame Quigley’s in Golden Square.” Charlotte didn’t miss the way the woman in front of her tensed up at Quigley’s name.

“Lydia Quigley is a horrid woman and though many in my circle may prefer to spend their time in her shop, I would much rather stay as far away from the woman as possible.”

Charlotte leaned on the table, suddenly more curious about this woman’s story than ever. “What’s Lydia Quigley to you? She’s our competition in a way so I’m no fan of her either, but…” Charlotte watched as the woman tensed up further as Charlotte prodded her for more information.

“Miss ah Charlotte, was it? I came here to get away from people like Lydia Quigley and others in my peerage. I did not come here to be interrogated about my personal life.”

Charlotte backed off the table and threw her hands up in an apologetic motion. “Sorry love, just a curious and nosy person I suppose.” She backed up even more as the woman fixed her with a pointed glare.

“Do you even remember what I ordered or is your only purpose here to be ‘curious and nosy’ to all those who walk in?”

Charlotte blanched at the woman’s sudden standoffish attitude. “Of course. One Early Grey tea, coming right up.” Charlotte scurried away with her tail between her legs to start the lady’s tea steepening.

As she stood in the back, waiting for the water to boil, Emily and Sukey crept up behind her. “You were talkin’ to that lady an awful long time Charlie. She tell you why some rich bitch like her came in here?”

Charlotte leaned her back on the counter. “Eh, didn’t learn much about the woman. Only that she seems to hate Lydia Quigley almost as much as Ma and that she’s not a fan of bein’ talked to.”

Emily and Sukey did not seem satisfied with her answer, but the scream of the tea kettle cut off any further pestering they may have wanted to do. She immediately turned and poured the hot water into a coffee cup. Charlotte took a bag of Earl Grey and placed it in the cup of hot water, then placed the cup on the saucer.

She sped back out into the main area of the joint, careful not to spill the boiling water on herself. The woman was now texting furiously on her expensive cell phone. Charlotte placed the saucer in front of the beautiful woman and said, “I’d let that steepen a moment or two more if I were you, before you drink it.”

Blue eyes fixed onto her own as the woman looked up from her phone. There was some sort of fear or sadness in the woman’s eyes that Charlotte could not place, but the sight of those eyes fixated on Charlotte made her flinch slightly. “D-do you have any way for me to get this to go?”

Charlotte just stared at her a moment before dashing behind the till to grab a foam cup meant for hot drinks meant on the go as well as its lid. “Here ya go. I’ll pour that for you so you don’t ruin your nice shirt.” The woman squirmed in her seat as Charlotte poured the hot tea into the cup. Her anxiousness to leave was palpable.

The woman yanked the tea from Charlotte’s hand and gave her a fifty pound note in return. “Just keep the change, miss.”

Charlotte watched, dumbfounded, as the woman all but ran out the door with her things.

 

_Guess she suddenly decided she didn’t belong here after all._

  


Isabella knew it was a bad idea to go into the Well’s shop on Greek Street the minute the thought even crossed her mind, but her desperation to get away from anyone and everyone associated with her brother was a strong motivator.

The young woman who had been her server, Charlotte, of course just had to be gorgeous and kind. She could still feel the woman’s piercing blue eyes roaming her body as she had taken Isabella’s order. All Isabella could think about as the younger woman spoke to her was taking advantage of the Well’s shop’s ‘specialities’ and asking her to service her in some other ways.

The text from her brother reminding her of the meeting with the board members that morning had been like a bucket of cold water dumped onto her head. How could she have forgotten that the meeting was today and not tomorrow?

Harcourt was going to be furious at her for being late and she was well aware that he would take it out on her later that night.

She flashed her ID to the security guard as she dashed through the Blayne Industries building in St. James. She was already twenty minutes late to the board meeting. She saw in horror that all of the elevators were on the top floor, and creeping down slowly.

She burst into the stairwell and took the steps two at a time in her heels, trying not to spill hot tea on herself the entire time.

She dashed to the conference room and walked in just in time to see all the board members standing. She wanted to bang her head against the wall. She had completely missed the whole thing.

“Ah Izzy! Finally you’ve arrived. Late due to your need for hot tea in the morning, no doubt.” The rest of the board members chuckled slightly at her brother’s jests. Isabella fought off the urge to cry out and scream at her brother for demeaning her in front of so many important people.

“Don’t worry my dear, not much happened this meeting. We really had no need for a secretary to take minutes.” Isabella moved to the side of the door as the members of the board filed out of the conference room and waited until it was only her and Harcourt in the room.

“You still choose to refer to me as nothing more than a secretary, Harcourt?”

Her brother sneered slightly as he poured himself a glass of water from the counter behind him. Isabella fixed him with a harsh glare. “You and I both know that Papa wanted me as CFO after he died.”

Harcourt pursed his lips and made a tsk sound. “Yes Izzy, but you and I also both know that you are much too inept to be put in such a position as CFO. Just look at how you completely missed the board meeting this morning.” He walked closer to her and brushed her face with the back of his hand, pointedly ignoring how she flinched away in response to his touch.

He walked past her towards the door and turned back to her for one last remark. “Making you my personal secretary is considerate enough Izzy, but don’t worry.You may just get your chance to rise through the ranks if you play your cards right.”

He left the conference room then, leaving Isabella to stew in her anger. She took a sip of the tea in her hand. _Still warm somehow._

 

Though the rest of her day went by monotonously and mundanely enough, her mind kept going back to the young woman in the Well’s Hole in the Wall who had served her. She shook away her thoughts. Her mother and father had not paid for her to go to a conversion therapist for four years in her teens for her to falter because of one pretty girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on tumblr @artemisodinson


	2. Something to Talk About

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Isabella finds herself at the Wells' Hole in the Wall again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew I definitely should have studied for Calculus and not written this but I couldn't help it! Fitzwells is irresistible. Please enjoy this next chapter.

Considering the way the woman had sped out the door the last time she was here, Charlotte was surprised to see the mysterious rich woman in her ma’s joint again that same weekend. 

Saturday nights were always busy for them. Nearly every table was full of people and yet the woman still stood out in her designer jeans and blouse. Charlotte felt her eyes drop to the woman’s shapely butt that filled out her jeans quite nicely.

The woman was sat in Sukey’s section, but Charlotte grabbed the other server before she could make her way over there. “I’ll take the rich one again Sukey. Maybe I can wrangle more information outta ‘er this time.”

Sukey stared at her a moment. “You sure Charlotte? You’re already triple sat right now.”

“She’s only one person Sukey. Besides, all she ordered last time was tea. I’ll be fine.”

She made her way over to the woman quickly, refilling a table’s water on her way. She finally made it over to the woman’s table.

The woman wore her hair down today. She looked even more stunning than she had in that stifling blazer and skirt.

“Good evenin’. My name’s-”

“Charlotte. Yes I remember. You served me the last time I was here.”

The woman did not look up from her menu as she spoke, but Charlotte still found herself smiling coyly at the woman’s words. She leaned against the table with one arm. Perhaps the woman was here for the specialities the Wells’ joint had to offer.“Oh? So you’ve been thinkin’ about me?”

The woman immediately flushed and looked up at Charlotte, obviously taken aback by Charlotte’s brazen attitude. She sputtered for a moment before stammering out. “You-I just-” The woman’s eyes fell back to her menu again. “You were quite nosy last time  _ Charlotte. _ ” The woman said her name a bit derisively and was obviously trying  to rankle Charlotte in some way.

“Ah. I was wasn’t I? But you still came back, didn’t you?”

The woman continued to stare down at her menu, refusing to meet Charlotte’s eyes. “W-well your tea was...quite good.”

Charlotte laughed out loud at the woman’s words. “Oh yes, I’ve been told our pre-packaged tea in a foam cup is to  _ die  _ for.”

Charlotte leaned in closer, placing a hand against the back of the woman’s head-rest. She watched, satisfied, as the woman swallowed and her breath caught. “You left a considerable... _ tip _ last time. You sure there isn’t anything else you want?”

The woman dragged her eyes up Charlotte’s body, stopping momentarily on Charlotte’s breasts that were pushed up and on display in her waitress outfit, finally meeting Charlotte’s eyes.“J-just another hot Earl Grey tea will be fine. Thank you.”

Charlotte tried to mask her disappointment. The woman was obviously attracted to her, and based on her last large tip and the clothes she wore, Charlotte could probably make a pretty penny  _ servicing  _ the woman.

But Charlotte did have other tables to take care of. She couldn’t spend all day trying to seduce the woman. She pushed back from the woman’s headrest. “Alright! One hot Earl Grey coming right up.”

She couldn’t resist winking at the woman as she walked away.

  
  


Isabella blew out a hard breath after the young waitress left her table. It was evident the younger woman was trying to entice Isabella into making use of the Wells’ other offers, but Isabella’s years of being taught to resist her urges had made sure she had not tripped up and taken up the ‘waitress’s’ offer. 

She looked around the joint, noting that she was nearly the only woman there who was not working. She was certainly the only one who was the sole occupant of a table  _ and  _ a woman.

What was she even doing back here? Especially at  _ night.  _ If her brother learned what she was doing, he could use it against her easily. He could even have her removed from the board entirely. She put her head in her hands.  _ Foolish longings of a perverted old woman. _

Someone cleared their throat to get her attention. It was one of the other waitresses. “Charlotte has become indisposed for the moment. My name’s Sukey. I’ll be takin’ care of you for the rest of the night.” The red-haired girl deposited her tea in front of her.

Isabella was embarrassed at the feeling of disappointment at Charlotte not being her server any longer. She glanced up at the back of the joint in time to see Charlotte leading a man up the stairs.

The waitress cleared her throat again, startling Isabella out of her longing look. “There anythin’ else I can get you miss?”

“Oh ah, no, that will be all.” She stared down at her tea mindlessly and decided to pull out a book to pass the time.

  
  


Charlotte came down the stairs from her tryst with the older gentleman who had all but begged her for an hour, only for the man to barely last ten minutes. He still paid the 500 pounds he promised though. 

She deposited 200 of it into the shared pot that all the ‘waitresses’ kept for the nights since going upstairs meant another girl would have to take her tables for the time being.

She was surprised to see the rich woman still seated at her table. Alone. The joint had nearly cleared out for the night, most people had either left or had gone upstairs to dally with one of the ‘waitresses’, yet the woman still remained at her table.  _ Reading a book,  _ of all things.

Charlotte made her way over to the woman’s table and plopped herself down across from her.

The woman visibly jumped in surprise. “What are you doing?” The woman sounded vaguely annoyed, but Charlotte could hear a tinge of simple exhaustion in the woman’s voice as well..

“Takin’ my break. Actually we’re about to close for all  _ regular  _ customers you know.” Charlotte leaned forward conspiratorially and the woman all but hid her face behind her book.

“Wha’ are  _ you  _ still doin’ here? Waitin’ for me maybe?” The woman blushed furiously. Charlotte was beginning to piece together what part of the woman’s story was. Here was an older rich socialite, coming to a  _ known  _ brothel, but refusing to take part in its true specialties.

“I was hoping to see you again, yes. The woman who replaced you was a bit...rude. I wanted to make sure you were the one who received my tip.”

Charlotte beamed back at her. The woman reached into her purse and again pulled out a fifty pound note. Charlotte reached for it, being sure to graze the woman’s hands gently as she did so, noting the soft gasp the woman let out.“You don’t have to leave you know. We’re still open another half hour.”

The woman looked down, suddenly very interested in the pattern painted on the table. “I-I don’t want to-”

“You don’t have to. We can just...talk, you and I”

Dark blue eyes fixed back onto her own. “Talk?”

“Yeah, last time you acted like you wanted to be far away from those ‘in your circle’, and tonight you spent an hour and a half in here.  _ Alone.  _ Just to read.”

“Perhaps I simply wanted a quiet place to enjoy my novel.”

Charlotte scoffed and laughed slightly. “It’s quiet now, sure, but it definitely wasn’t half an hour ago. And it was practically deafening in here an hour ago.” The woman snapped her head up, narrowing her eyes. “What are you trying to imply?”

Charlotte smiled at the woman softly. “Just thought you might want some company.” The woman fixed her with nearly unreadable eyes, but Charlotte had been trained for years how to read people. She could see the loneliness behind them.

“What could you and I possibly have to talk about?” Charlotte looked down at the table to the woman’s book.  _ Wuthering Heights. _

“You know I always preferred Charlotte to Emily.” Charlotte motioned to the novel on the table. “Maybe it was because we share a name and all, but reading  _ Jane Eyre  _ in high school made me the die-hard feminist I am today.”

“Is that so? It’s not as if  _ Wuthering Heights  _ does not challenge the social and political inequality of the sexes the same way that Jane Eyre does.”

Charlotte took note of how the woman seemed to open up slightly as she spoke.

“Well it seems we do have something to discuss now don’t we?” 

  
  


Isabella found herself dangerously enraptured by the young girl before her. They had been speaking for nearly an hour regarding any number of things, from the Bronte sisters and Shakespeare to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed. 

“Bullshit! Buffy is a  _ much  _ better feminist show than Charmed could ever hope to have been! Half of Charmed was the three sisters pining over the man of the season, barely even making time for, you know,  _ actually fighting demons!” _

“Yes, but to the same effect, Charmed explored the social dynamic and relationships between women and men on a much more tactile level than Buffy did. And Charmed never had one of their main women end up with her would be rapist.” Isabella choked on the word ‘rapist’ and found herself clenching her fist.  _ It’s my own fault for bringing the idea up. _

“Hey, are you al-”

“Charlie, unless your companion is gonna spend the night, she needs to leave and you need to help clean up shop.” It was the young girl who had served as her hostess earlier.

Isabella took the opportunity to spring up from her seat. “That’s alright. I need to be headed home anyway.” She hurriedly collected her belongings and made for the door.

A soft hand clasped her wrist and she looked down to see Charlotte looking back with soft eyes.

“Before you go running off again, will you at least tell me your name?”

Isabella’s mind reeled. Charlotte might recognize her if she gave her proper name. Her family’s company was in the news constantly. “Uh. Bella. Bella Fitz.”

The younger woman stood up and walked with her out the door. “Well Bella Fitz. Will I see you again?” Charlotte’s voice had taken on a rough husk. She had Isabella pinned with her soft blue eyes.

“I-maybe. If I can find the time.” 

The younger woman smiled flirtatiously back at her and Isabella felt herself gulp under her gaze.“I should like that, Bella.”

Isabella raced out the door into the street and looked at her phone. She had four missed calls from Harcourt and eleven texts asking where she was.

It was nearing midnight. Harcourt usually expected her home by eleven most nights. She took one last glance back into the Wells’ joint and saw Charlotte send her a wave.

She felt warmth flood her chest. Any anger Harcourt unleashed on her that night would be worth the time she had gotten to spend speaking with Charlotte.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so some development between our two leading ladies. Can you believe?

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on tumblr @artemisodinson


End file.
